Shropshire Fungus Group Newsletter 2018

Rhytisma salicinum. First found in Shropshire in October 2018, at Snailbeach. This photo is of the second find a week or two later, in the same location

CONTENTS

Exidia recisa - Jo Weightman

First records for the county – Jo Weightman

Wilding – an extract

Rob Rowe’s notes for 2018

Interesting colour effects in fungi - Ted Blackwell

Quote from an unknown source

And finally – a challenge

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Exidia recisa

Jo Weightman

This species is described as locally common. For all that, after forty plus years of fungussing, and a

lifetime of general gazing, I saw my first in 2018 in the churchyard at Hope. In the same month

further examples were found two sites in Herefordshire.

So a happy combination of season, temperature and, above all, moisture. Maybe Exidia recisa was

having a ‘year’. What it took to find it was a person whose eyes were not glued to the ground.

For this is primarily a species of dead

but still attached wood. The Shropshire

specimens were at head height or

higher, on the outermost twigs of a

large, free-growing goat willow Salix

caprea. So, well aerated. One of the

Herefordshire collections was actually

on a fallen branch that was caught up in

surrounding scrub and so well exposed.

The Exidias are jelly fungi and as such

are adapted to a life of exposure, as

their bodies ‘capture’ moisture and

swell up when it rains. In this turgid

condition, they are able to disperse their spores onto equally moist future hosts. As the air and

surroundings dry, becoming unsuitable for spore germination, so do the fruit-bodies shrink to almost

nothing and sporulation stops.

The fruit-bodies of Exidia recisa are golden brown, like amber when the sun shines through them,

top-shaped, becoming pendulous when fully charged. In the field, occurrence on willow is a strong

clue to identification. The only other brownish Exidias are E. saccharina which is confined to pine

and E repanda which grows on birch in Scotland. Tremella foliacea is a similar colour and occurs on a

very wide range of trees and shrubs but the fruit-bodies form large convoluted masses not single

pustules. E. recisa has been known to occur on broadleaf hosts other than willow, in which case it

would be necessary to check the spores under the microscope. It appears in autumn and early

winter.

This is the second record for Shropshire, the first sighting exactly 100 years ago at Plowden. And the

first records for Herefordshire.

The message is - if near willows, look up.

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First records for Shropshire in 2018

Jo Weightman

We have recorded well over 40 new species in the county this year. However most of them

come from a single source – Peter Thompson, an expert in ascomycetes and micro-fungi. He

is monitoring two sites in the county, Muxton Marsh and Eardington Local Nature Reserve.

Group forays have recorded five:

Ceriporiopsis gilvescens - on fallen broadleaf wood, Linley Hall, 15th September

A fairly common species nationally, probably often passed over as yet another white poroid

crust. It is quite soft when fresh staining pink when touched, a good indicator but

microscopic examination is essential. Spore size and shape are helpful. Presence of blue

staining crystals on the hyphae and clamps on the septa are more definitive.

Dacrymyces capitatus - on a fence rail, Linley Hall, 15th September

Easily confused with the very common D. stillatus but with a fairly distinct stalk and smaller

spores. Possibly under-recorded.

Cheilymenia crucipila - on fallen leaves, Sallow Coppice, Craven Arms, 4th November

Red discs 3-12 mm across, with a few yellowish, blunt, pale-tipped hairs on the outside. The

spores have fine blue-staining warts and the hairs are forked at the base.

Inocybe glabripes (formerly microspora) - associated with willow? scrub, on poor soils,

Snailbeach, 21st October

An Inocybe with no give-away characters in the field and pruinose only at the apex of the

stipe. Under the microscope, the spores are amygdaloid (almond-shaped), smooth, not

knobbly, and, as the specific name implies, small for the genus. Cystidia metuloid (thick-

walled with crystals) and fairly narrow-necked. Occasionally reported nationally and

probably under-recorded.

Tolypocladium capitatum (Cordyceps capitata) Snailbeach, 21st October (first modern

record)

All Tolypocladium and Cordyceps species are parasitic. T. capitatum arises from a false

truffle, Elaphomyces sp. which was not found on this occasion. It looks like a drumstick with

a spherical, yellow-brown head on a pale stipe. The head is pimpled with the ostioles – the

dark openings through which the spores are discharged. It has not been found in Shropshire

since Rea collected it in the Wyre Forest in the nineteenth century. Collected by Rob Rowe.

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Wilding

An edited extract from the book ‘Wilding’ about the efforts of one landowner to allow nature to take its own

course, by Isabella Tree. Highly recommended.

Like soil bacteria, mycorrhizal fungi free up essential elements in the soil, Phosphorus,

Copper, Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc and Iron, making them available in a form that plants can

absorb.

But mycorrhizal fungi also contribute a compelling argument to the value of rewilding the

soil – that of carbon sequestration. One of the secrets is an extraordinary substance called

Glomalin, which is, surprisingly, still little discussed. It was discovered in 1996 by scientists in

the USA. A sticky glycoprotein, it is produced by mycorrhizal fungi from carbon extracted

from the roots of plants. Its gluey proteins coat the hyphae of the mycorrhizal fungi,

protecting them from decomposition and microbial attack. Acting as microscopic

underground conduits, the hyphae extend the reach of a plant’s roots to areas in the soil

that the roots are unable to exploit on their own. Glomalin reinforces the hyphae, sealing

the conduits to prevent leakage, and ensuring the efficient transport of distant water and

nutrients back to the plant.

Glomalin has profound effects on soil as well. As plants grow, the hyphae creep down the

plant’s roots establishing new networks near the extending tip. Higher up the root, the

defunct hyphae slough off their protective Glomalin, which falls back into the soil and

attaches to particles of sand, silt, clay and organic matter, forming lumps of soil

(‘aggregates’), allowing water, air and nutrients to infiltrate the spaces between. Protected

by their tough, waxy coating of Glomalin these aggregates are what gives soil its structure –

the kind of friable tilth a famer crumbles appreciatively between their fingers.

Glomalin is extraordinarily durable. Tests have shown it can survive intact in the soil for

more than forty years. It can only be separated from soil by immersing it in citrate solution

and subjecting it to extreme heat for over an hour.

Glomalin is made up of protein and carbohydrate sub-units, both containing carbon, the

total of which comprises 20-40 per cent of the molecule – a considerable proportion

compared to the 8% in humic acid, once thought of as the main storage material for soil

carbon. Aided by Glomalin aggregates protect organic carbon from decay by microbes. More

mycorrhizal fungi in the soil produce more stable aggregates, and more aggregates result in

higher soil carbon storage. Amazingly, the world’s soils hold more carbon as organic matter

than all the vegetation on the planet, including rainforest. 82% of carbon in the terrestrial

biosphere is in the soil.

One of the remarkable features of mycorrhizal fungi is their ability to respond to rising

carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere by increasing their production of Glomalin. In a

three year experiment, scientists used out-door chambers to control carbon-dioxide levels

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on small areas of natural grassland. They found that when the gas reached a concentration

of 670 parts per million – the level predicted for this planet by the end of the century – the

hyphae grew three times as long and produced five times more Glomalin than those

exposed to today’s levels.

Improving the structure of our soils and returning unproductive agricultural land to

permanent pasture could be a crucial weapon in the battle against rising levels of carbon

dioxide. It is estimated that carbon capture by the world’s farmlands, if better managed,

could total as much as 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, more than the annual

accumulation in the atmosphere, and if organic matter in the world’s farmed soils was

increased by as little as 1.6%, the problem of climate change would be solved.

Rob Rowe’s notes from 2108

CFGA fungi outings Autumn 2018 Caring for God's Acre Surveys in churchyards 2018 This Autumn I again had the pleasure of organising several fungi survey days for CFGA in South West Shropshire and Shrewsbury. Many of these churchyards have areas of old unimproved grassland and ancient trees and are often good for many plant and fungi species I was fortunate to be joined by Jo Weightman for some of these outings. They were well advertised and we were always joined by several interested locals and a dedicated band of volunteers. The fungi were not generally as good or plentiful as last year but there was always enough to keep people interested. Of these churchyards there were several gems. Many of the best fungi sites seem to be grass that has been cut short all year, [particularly More] although others such as Ratlinghope [which is managed as a hay meadow and then cut later in the year] were also very good. Over the two seasons a total of 18 different species of waxcaps were found, 5 species of earthtongue, 5 species of earthstar and several corals and spindles. In 2018 we undertook five outings in total and visited churchyards at Bishops Castle, More, Onibury, Stokesay, Halford, Hope, Snailbeech, Ratlinghope and Longden Coleham. Scarlet berry truffle For the second year running this fungus has come up. It is growing in Bishops Castle churchyard under the same yew tree as the Geastrum brittanicum and it does seem strange that two rare species should end up under the same yew [there is quite a choice] With a name like Scarlet berry truffle it sounds as if it should be in a chocolate selection box and it was certainly a good Christmas present for me. [It is winter fruiting] So from now on give discarded pieces of orange peel a second look.

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Scarlet Berry Truffle (Paurocotylis pila) is a native of New Zealand and is thought to have been introduced into the UK in the early 1970's but mainly found in the north and east and this is the first record for Shropshire. However I feel it is rather a misnomer as it looks more like discarded pieces of orange peel especially those that have come up on the path and been trampled and I am sure more will soon be found. [In its native range of New Zealand, the brain-like P. pila grows under Podocarpus and has evolved to imitate the plant's fruit. Its spores are dispersed by large birds, which eat the fallen fruits and are cunningly fooled into also eating the fungus. Taxus baccata, the tree species under which the fungus was discovered, and Podocarpus fruits are rather similar in appearance and are both bird-dispersed. It is therefore quite possible that P. pila has found a parallel ecological niche halfway around the world. Apparently there are many Antipodean fungi that have coevolved with large birds to be truffle-like and imitate fruits but there is already evidence that these same species are evolving 'back' to be non-truffle-like following the extinction of many of these species, such as Dinornis the Giant Moa.] Taken from internet source unknown but acknowledged with thanks

Snailbeach foray 21st October 2018

Each year the Upper Onny Wildlife Group organises a number of botanical walks and outings, the last of which is a fungi foray with the SFG, usually around the Bog or Snailbeach areas of the Stiperstones Three days before hand Cassy Clayton from Natural England and I did a recce from Snailbeach car park up to the old reservoir which once fed the mine workings. This area is around old lead and barytes mines. There are huge old spoil heaps which contain a large amount of calcite

and so there can be plant species more usually found on chalk or limestone. Up around and above the reservoir is sessile oakwood and conifers which is much more acidic and normal for this area. Here in the leaf litter Cassy spied what appeared to be two upright stumpy match heads protruding. From close up we thought they looked like some sort of Cordyceps and a couple of photos were taken and we marked the place for the groups coming visit. The following Saturday SFG arrived and were joined by several others including an enthusiastic ten year old grandson! Whilst waiting for any late comers we searched the road verge which contained several waxcaps and other grassland species. Just opposite the village hall on the roadside grow some Pussy willows [Salix caprea] and growing in association with them is the Girdled knight Tricholoma cingulatum, unusual among Tricholomas in having a ring. In this particular case there is a third species, a rare parasitic plant, the yellow Birds nest that also grows in association with them. This has no chlorophyll and sends up a yellow brown stem and flower head in late summer. The old stalk was still in evidence.

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We spent the morning making our way slowly up the hill finding a reasonable number of species. Stopping by the reservoir for lunch in a welcome patch of sunlight I went to try to re-find the Cordyceps-like fungi.. Although we did find it there was not much left as the slug [still in evidence] had almost devoured it. This time with a bit of penknife excavation we found the host....... a small tuber or False truffle about 2 cm across, Elaphomyces granulatus which is often hosts this parasite now renamed Tolypocladium capitatum. Although there only seems to be one previous record for Shropshire it must be very easily overlooked. Tricholoma species, which are possibly my favourite fungi genus were well represented. As well as the aforementioned Tricholoma cingulatum we also found T. saponaceum, T. Scalpturatum T. sulphureum and the particularly handsome and not very common Tricholoma imbricatum or Matt Knight growing under Scots Pine.

INTERESTING COLOUR EFFECTS IN FUNGI

Ted Blackwell

The importance of colour in identifying fungal fruit-bodies and their spores is obvious, but there are other ways in which colour may be significant in distinguishing fungus species. Colour changes may occur as reactions to applied chemicals and stains, or caused by bruising where reaction is inherent within the tissues. Of the latter, reactions in Boletes are usually well documented and are not discussed here. In other species, notes of many significant colour effects are scattered throughout the literature, and the purpose of this article is to collect together under one heading some of the perhaps less well known. In the Ascomycetes the following have been noted:

Colour of juice (=sap, of some authors).

A number of Peziza species produce a coloured or watery juice when pricked or

cut, which can used diagnostically, as follows:

badia: pale reddish-brown.

badiofusca: opalescent, bluish.

depressa: watery.

michelii: whitish.

plebeia: bright yellow.

saniosa: blue. sucosella: yellow often turning yellow-green to green.

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succosa: bright yellow.

Other species noted for coloured juice are:

Plicaria leiocarpa: yellow.

Velutarina rufo-olivacea: greenish-brown.

Colour changes due to bruising,

Caloscypha fulgens: staining dark bluish to olive green when bruised and drying

orange (said to look like mouldy orange-peel).

Colour changes due to chemical reaction:

Aleuria and Scutellinia: What has been called the ‘carotenoid reaction’ is exhibited

where there is a green staining of certain tissues, notably tips

of paraphyses, in Melzer's iodine.

Belonidium sulfureum paraphyses yield purple stain in KOH.

Catinella olivacea tissue stains purple in KOH.

Gibberella pulicaris: when mounted in lactic acid a purple or reddish-purple

pigment diffuses out from their walls (E&E Microf. on Land

Plants p161).

Ionomidotis fulvotingens: pigment soluble and turning reddish brown in KOH.

Mollisia ramealis tissue yields a sulphur-yellow stain in KOH.

Neodasyscypha cerina paraphyses yield purple stain in KOH.

Phaeangella ulicis: flesh crimson in KOH. Dr. Dennis says (a) 'contents of

paraphyses become wine red in KOH solution'; (b) 'Fresh

collections indicate variations in colouring of the excipular

cells from brownish ochre to crimson in ammonia, with a blue-

green tint to the cell wall in KOH solution'.

In Basidiomycetes: tissue colour reactions with reagents.

The tissue of all Hymenochaetaceae blacken in KOH.

Any alkali (KOH, ammonia or washing soda crystals) on the flesh of Lactarius turpis,

Daedaleopsis confragosa, & Hapalopilus nidulans gives deep purple colour.

Agaricus species Schäffer’s reaction test on the cap cuticle is a line drawn with

aniline across which a line is drawn with concentrated nitric

acid. If positive, the point of intersection turns bright orange or

red, more rarely purple. A negative reaction is no colour change

or dull orange brown after several minutes or even hours. (NB:

hazardous chemical reagents).

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Amanita virosa: KOH on cap gives chrome yellow.

Asterophora: basidia are described as siderophilous: see explanation in

Lyophyllum below.

Chroogomphus: hyphae of cap cuticle amyloid or darkening in Melzer's; strongly

amyloid hyphae at base of stem and in mycelium in surrounding

substrate: compare with Gomphidius where there is no amyloid

reaction on hyphae at base of stem or in mycelium in

surrounding substrate.

Crinipellis brown cap and hairs becoming olivaceous in KOH.

Cortinarius: subgen. Cortinarius: flesh red in alkali.

subgen. Dermocybe: flesh black-brown in alkali.

Cystoderma: Cap cuticularcells rusty-brown in KOH except for C. Carcharias

which hardly discolours.

Fomes fomentarius Piece of cap cortex wetted with KOH and placed on white paper

gives deep red stain.

Gomphidius: the same reaction as Chroogomphus above.

Gymnopilus: flesh blackens in alkali.

Inocyb geophylla var.lilacina The toadstool loses its colour if kept in the dark for 48 hours but

regains it if exposed to light for a few hours.

Lyophyllum connatum: Iron Salts FeSO4 on gills, violet in one minute (to distinguish

from Tricholoma columbetta).

Lyophyllum species: Spores and basidia are described as siderophilous (=in some

texts: carminophilous) which means that they contain large

particles which turn blackish-purple or violet-black in the stain

aceto-carmine.

Lyophyllums. stricto. All parts bruise bluish-black.

Reaction with paper:

Limacella glioderma: moist white paper tissue in contact with cap stains brick-red.

Porphyrellus porphyrosporus: white paper in contact with cap stains blue-green.

Colour effects from infection by other fungus parasites. Basidiomycete infections:

Hygrocybe virginea: with pink or reddish staining of stipe: infected with a

Hyphomycete fungus Fusarium aff. graminearum. The coloured

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fruit bodies were once named in error "H. virgineavar.

roseipes", a non-existent species.

H. virginea: With bright lilaceous lamellae, infected with Hyphomycete

Paecilomyces marquandii.

Myxomycete infections

Fuligo septica: Mature aethalia are normally bright yellow like scrambled eggs,

but a common parasite, Nectriopsis violacea, forms a violet

hyphal net on the surface giving it a violet tint.

Human physiological reaction

Eating the edible Saffron Milkcap and False SaffonMilkcap (Lactarius deliciosus & L.deterrimus) turns

urine red. This is harmless - but the unexpected discovery can cause some temporary alarm to the

uninformed.

—O—

Based on an article first published in Herefordshire Fungus Survey Group’s News SheetNo. 32.

Editor’s note. I am aware of one omission from this list, only aware because of a find in my own garden. Several years ago I found a slightly gone over mushroom under a Cypress tree. I didn't recognise it, and when I lifted it parts started to turn red. It was Leucoagaricus badhamii. I initially keyed it out in Funga Nordica as L. croceovelutinus because it turned brown with KOH. Further investigation however led me to conclude that FN is wrong. An exchange of e-mail messages with Henning Knudsen, editor of FN, confirmed this. L. badhamii does go brown with KOH, L. croceovelutinus goes green. We found the latter in the Ironbridge Gorge some time later, and it did go a lovely shade of green. I checked when the second edition of FN came out - the error has not been corrected.

Identification to species

Quote from an unknown source

“...it really depends if the goal is identifying things or taxonomic research. These days the latter requires heaps of sequencing to define the boundaries of the pheonotype, and then, and only then, do you look for morphological characters that reliably separate species with objectively quantified phenotypic variation. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes not and there are no adequate characters, and you have inseparable ‘species complexes’. Finally you don’t need the sequencer anymore. Identification carries on as normal, using reliable morphological characters. As a taxonomist, then yes there is a temporary problem if you don’t have that sequencing access. The frustration is people who deny that pre-molecular definitions can, and have gone very badly wrong. They won’t accept that the new ways are much more objective and ultimately

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reliable. They say ‘New ways make things more difficult to identify than they used to be’. An observation is that the UK has lapsed far behind many other countries in sorting out the historical use of names using new techniques. Nearly all the names in the major speciose mushroom groups are being used randomly, and the distribution maps are mostly fiction." Having read this do you:

a) Agree b) Disagree c) Feel you’ve lost the will to live

And finally a challenge...

These are all fungi which are on the BAP list, but have, at some time, been recorded in Shropshire. Can we find them again in 2019? Battarraea phalloides (2006) Worfield Boletus immutatus (1997) Cefn Coch Wood

Boletus rhodopurpureus (1904) Shirlett Boletus satanus (1901) Whitcliffe

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Cotylidia pannosa (1912) Preston upon the Weald Geoglossum atropurpureum (1873) Unrecorded

Sarcosphaera coronaria (1973) Dudmaston Phellodon Melaleucus(1887)Bomere

Hydnellum spongiosipes (2016) Sowdley Wood Hygrocybe spadicea (1905) Forest of Wyre

Hydnellum concrescens (1925) Tickwood & Horderley Microglossum olivaceum (1905) Whitcliffe

Edited by Les Hughes February 2019 Boletus immutatus photo M. Ainsworth